[...] Taro Aso, the finance minister, said on Monday that the elderly should be allowed to “hurry up and die” to relieve pressure on the state to pay for their medical care.

“Heaven forbid if you are forced to live on when you want to die. I would wake up feeling increasingly bad knowing that [treatment] was all being paid for by the government,” he said during a meeting of the national council on social security reforms. “The problem won’t be solved unless you let them hurry up and die.” [...]

To compound the insult, he referred to elderly patients who are no longer able to feed themselves as “tube people”. [...]

"Heaven forbid if you are forced to live on when you want to die. I would wake up feeling increasingly bad knowing that [treatment] was all being paid for by the government"

Coming to the US soon (or already here). There is no way the US can afford medical care for the waves of radiation sickness now showing up. Obama will forever be known as the 'President who let his country die'.

There is PLENTY of money to take care of everyone's health care, the thing to do is to force these oil and gas and nuclear folks and all the other 1% to give up just a small 1-percent of what they have and it will pay for everyone's care and our economy will run as smooth as baby-soft butt.

Hey Purple Rain. I'm sorry to contest your disbelief in Mark, but you should read this article by former Republican Secty of Treasury under Ronald Reagan, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts. Read it at the risk of being even more terminally disillusioned:

I thought Asian cultures, and particularly the Japanese, had tremendous respect for elders. What happened to that?

Or was that as inauthentic as the supposed concerned for the community over private interests, which the government and nuke industry have revealed to be a sham by the way they have dealt with the aftermath of the Fuku crisis–the failure to evacuate children, requiring Fuku rice to be served in the schools, failing to adequately compensate those whose homes and livelihoods have been lost as a result of contamination, insistence on restarting reactors built on active fault lines despite strong public opposition, insistence on burning radioactive debris all across the island despite strong public opposition, TEPCOs original fudging of safety tests and neglect of earthquake warnings that precipitated the crisis in the first place, TEPCO's withholding of timely information about the initial explosions, thereby hindering people's ability to evacuate to safer areas … The communitarian concern is just something those with the power use to pressure the rest of the population to acquiesce in the powerful people's self-servng policies.

The 72-year-old Aso, who has a reputation for speaking insensitively, was addressing a meeting on social security issues on the burden imposed by prolonging patients' lives with treatment.

Describing patients with serious illnesses as "tube persons", Aso said they should be allowed to die quickly if they wanted to, Kyodo News reported.

"Heaven forbid I should be kept alive if I want to die. You cannot sleep well when you think it's all paid by the government. This won't be solved unless you let them hurry up and die."

He later retracted some of his remarks and admitted it had been inappropriate to make such comments in public. They were his personal opinion, not government policy, he said.

Aso became something of a figure of fun during his brief stint as prime minister in 2009, during which he told a group of university students that young people should not get married because they are too poor and, because they don't earn much money, they are not worthy of respect from a life partner.

That insight was followed by a declaration that followers of the world's religions should learn from Japan's work ethic.

"Our values in Japan regard work as important. To work is good. That is a completely different way of thinking to the Old Testament. We should share that philosophy with other nations."

One must balance the money gained in UN-warrented billed medicals, with over-all payout in social funding. Pull the plug when the monetary balance shifts in favor of the patient, or when health care costs exceeds income.

I'm glad you cleared some of his comments up … and in some ways I do believe he has a valid point and the point would be just as valid in USA or UK or anywhere else. There does come a point in time in a very old person't life when a person should not be "forced against their will to endue medeical treatment or pain" when they should make a decision that's why I always supported that Doctor Kevorkian. I suspect that this Japanese leader might have been "meaning or intending" this – even if the words came out wrong. If that is the case – there is some sense to that-type of meaning.

Dr. Kevorkian provided a service to patients that 'asked' for assistance. Aso makes it quite clear it should be mandatory, for the sake of government costs. No 'asking' involved. Similar to what the UK is doing now.

These are two completely opposite points of view. Aso was very clear in his remarks, and only provided 'retraction' after he was globally shown to be an asshole. Every politician lies when they're caught screwing up. We're all used to that.

Aso wants old people dead, and the only 'meaning or intending' from this is that this will be his opinion regarding everyone that will be dying from radiation sickness.

The only question will be is, will this become official government policy? We shall shortly see.

People are not like recyclables, you can't just depose of them after they have served there purpose, these people for the last fifty years have contributed to society and paid taxes that should have been able to provide a stable retirement, but those in charge wasted that money on nuclear plants, armed forces etc and squandered the money and stole, shame on you, just you wait sooner than you think it will be your turn.
What has happened to Japanese society since the second world war, what has democracy brought to Japan, not morals that's for sure, just greed and the smell of money.
May your ancestors have mercy on your souls.

Yes, he is an obnoxious ass. But people of all ages will fall victim to radiation poison. The massive Fukushima Fallout provides a government provided equal opportunity euthanasia process. But it's not a pain-free death.

The neo-cons have a very dark history. They are primarily Jewish, and first supported the Russian Revolution. That didn't work out that well for the bulk of Jews in Russia – although their aims were fully realized there, the imposition of totalitarianism, so they came to the US to try it again here, hopefully not making the same mistakes.

It's all explained in 'They Knew They Were Right', by Jacob Heilbraun.

We are certainly on our way to totalitarianism, no question about it. The question mark is 8 billion people slowly dying from radiation poisoning, and what they may have to say about it.

Not only are there more seniors in the general population than younger people in many parts of the world we also have an increased use of robots in all areas of our lives. They are pushing to make *us more comfortable with them, have them as our slaves or to live our lives through them, this is to make them so much more acceptable…

..so that when TPTB replace more & of our jobs with robots…it will be too late. As I said to my *nephew, government will not be paying us to sit at home with our feet up while robots take our jobs…

As already stated by others, euthanasia in various forms already exists…

but we will *hear more about it…it has been in the courts recently & TPTB will be pushing the *conversation & debate more & more in the public eye. They will first appear almost horrified at the thought…then bit by bit more court cases will be won, then more doctors & agencies will consider loosening regulations to facilitate our demise..by hook or by crook

TPTB are preparing for the loss of income from dying seniors & those dying of cancers ect. By replacing more of us with robots they *gain on many fronts, no striking workers, no sick pay or vacation time & robots working 24/7 with fewer & fewer human operators needed to maintain them.

And by thinning the *herd, they get rid of the sick or weak & will be left they hope..a better *race of humans that they can more easily control.

By the time TPTB are done with their *debate on the issue & more *freedoms are allowed..

Many will be convinced that it was in fact their idea that they wanted the right to die.

And just in case you thought there was a population explosion, Please take a moment & browse my 7 pages at Scrib that lists the research that already exists which proves not only a lower sperm rate but also a population decline or negative effect (more deaths than births in many parts of the world). And I did not take into account the effects of Fukushima in my paper…we all know how that will …end…

And with austerity measures being put in place worldwide, the Bill Gates foundation manages to collect over $4 Billion by July 2012 from friends to help control population growth through the use of contraceptives…see my paper

One problem, RJ: He was talking about OTHER PEOPLE, not himself! Oh, sure, he claims he would nobly choose to die rather than cost the taxpayers one more yen, but he's just another sleazy politico who postures as if he would not exclude himself from what he wishes to inflict upon others. I'll bet that if he ever has to make the choice to live or die he'll be begging for mercy and better medical care… at the taxpayers' expense, of course!

The Telegraph is a global news source, with excellent translators. I get the impression that he was speaking in clear English, personally.

Either way, the Telegraph has a barrage of lawyers that would vet a story like that before it hit the presses. If it was a mistranslation, there wouldn't have been a 'retraction' by Aso after the fact. He would have insisted the Telegraph print a retraction.

There is no questioning the veracity of his words, or the intent of those words. He couldn't have been more clear.

amberlight, those are my impressions also. I had the additional impression, looking at his photos in the Guardian, that I was looking at pictures of a very vain 72-year-old, or one with very rare genes for hair color.

RJ – I can't resist, re "living on tubes" – Millions of people live on the Boob Tube with zero chance of recovery, and they don't appear to notice or mind it.

More seriously, I'm inclined to think those decisions are highly personal, and the State has no business trying to spin its citizens one way or the other on the matter.

It gets messy in real-life though. My mother, after a lifelong career in medicine, would clearly have wanted "no resuscitation". However, when the time came, and a doctor offered her the choice, even describing the heroic measures they may have to use, such as breaking the sternum in order to attempt heart resuscitation… she looked at him with a vague 98-year-old smile and said "yes, please resuscitate me", as though she were ordering dinner. No heroics were needed, as things turned out, and she lived five more (tubeless) years and appeared to enjoy them.

Complicated ethical stuff. My conclusion is that each of us should write a living will if possible (the State permitting), update it from time to time as appropriate, and try to keep the State out of the equation.

As for the Japanese situation, there will inevitably be some people who perceive Aso as an elder statesman giving wise advice – for some, their blood will be on his hands.

Hooray for your Mom, aigeezer! She lived to 103? Wonderful! At 98 I believe she had insight into the meaning of life & death that we young uns lack. (I'm 68 and too busy to be called up yonder! LOL) She would have known when it was her time to go, so she could calmly tell the doctor in effect that she had more living to do.

My great grandfather died right before his 102nd birthday. After a very active life he had an injury that wouldn't heal, took to his bed, waited until he had a chance to say goodbye to his progeny and passed peacefully. There is a spiritual wisdom that the very aged possess that surpasses our understanding. Too bad modern society deems elders to be a nuisance and a financial drain.

Thanks, amberlight. Yes, she made it to 103. It seems they decide one day, for no obvious reason, to "turn their face to the wall" and let go.

It sounds like you and I might each enjoy good genes, and a certain amount of good luck so far in having made it through the scary 20th century. I'd like to see a few more centuries. No kidding, I'm just starting to get the hang of how things work.

We live in a tantalizing era, when it is conceivable that massive life extension technology might arrive any day. At the same time there are plenty of snake-oil predators who exploit people over that dream, and Luddites who would oppose it for anyone because it frightens them, and now… a politician who would try to subvert it for what appear to be sleazy economic reasons, such as empty-promise IOUs in pension fund strongboxes.

Is massive life extension really any closer now than it was for Herodotus or Ponce de León? Who knows, but it should be, and it probably could be if we (society) focused on it as we focus on more mundane things… but along comes Aso, to spin society backwards if he can. Others will copy him, I fear.

A Physicians Directive.is very imporatnt.
If a person is going to have control of "end of life" situation.
Without it..and a will/trust..the care and affairs of the dying/deceased will become controlled by the state.
This should be of particular concern for people with minors.
Who will care for one's chidren will be an issue.

I can tell you FIRST hand, there are currently death panels, or at least they exist in MA from where I just got my Dad home so he can recover from their inattention ( they didn't even see he was vomiting blood from the thinner they automatically put him on without consulting me…it was counter indicated).0,, MRSA infection they gave him, refusal to even administer diagnostic tests, ect. I can TELL you something has changed since his hospitalization in Nov. for simple pneumonia. The staff rotations are extreme. You NEVER have the same doc or nurse….one shift is all you get. A daily meeting of new staff that day to go over notes is to suffice for "healin arts" and personal healiing in the "practice" of medicine. With this last visit, theybwerentbeven practicing. The docs at the hospital suggested on five separate occasions that I should just take him home, because hospitals are "dangerous places" and just not call the ambulance next time. There was NO REASON for the assumption that he could not be diagnosed if he were given the proper tests to do it…the only thing was age. Dad has darned good insurance. He paid into the government "benefits (HIS MONEY…HIS BENEFITS) all his life. This isn't the GOVERNMET paying for ANYTHING. They OWE this care.

Back when there where men of courage in our midst, we would've dragged such trash as Taro Aso out their lairs and given them a terrifying beating…or worse! Now, we cringe in fear of the police state, unwilling to accept the mantle of our father's courage. The generations that sacrificed so much to give their children a better future are now abandoned to the murderous cult of the globalist. We rationalize that someone will step-up and do something, all the while knowing…none will. For our lack of courage, we deserve every-bit of what's about to descend upon all humanity…

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